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Blizzard and Valve Settle Who Gets To Use The "DOTA" Name

Mike Rougeau is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles, CA. When he's not taking pictures of his dog he's covering video games, technology and entertainment. Follow him on Twitter and Google+ for all the inane ramblings you can handle.

Blizzard and Valve have settled their lawsuit over who gets to use the name DOTA, or "Defense of the Ancients", the Warcraft 3 mod-turned-genre sensation.

When Valve announced that they'd hired the folks that had created the original mod and that they'd be making the sequel, DOTA 2, Blizzard filed a lawsuit claiming that only they have the rights to use the name commercially—the original was a mod for a Blizzard game, after all.

The results seem amicable for all involved. Valve gets the rights to use the DOTA name commercially, while fans can still use it non-commercially. Blizzard, on the other hand, has changed the name of their upcoming DOTA game to Blizzard All-Stars, which they said in a press release "ultimately better reflects the design of our game."

"We're pleased that we could come to an agreement with Blizzard without drawing things out in a way that would benefit no one," said Valve head Gabe Newell. "We both want to focus on the things our fans care about, creating and shipping great games for our communities."

Is everyone happy now? Looking forward to learning more about Blizzard All-Stars? Tell us in the comments or on Twitter.